Kickstarter

It’s not easy finding startup funds in these challenging economic times. Banks aren’t lending and investors prepared to take a risk must be drowning in requests to consider their proposal. I cover various ways to find a mentor or investor in Working the Cloud, but if you have a great idea it could be worth looking at crowd funding. I had a bit of a crazy start to the year, getting involved in a Kickstarter for Elite: Dangerous that spurred me on to start my own campaign to fund the purchase of a license to write a sci-fi novel based in the Elite: Dangerous world called Mostly Harmless. I was hoping to raise £4,242 but the campaign closed at an amazing £17,005 and I now have 811 readers waiting for their copy of my book and an unabridged audio-version for delivery in about a year. There are other crowd-funding platforms, like Indiegogo, but this experience made me realise it’s a fantastic way to get a project off the ground if you can find a way to talk to your audience on the social web.

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About the author

Kate Russell is a technology reporter, speaker and author. She appears weekly on the Webscape segment of the BBC technology show Click, and is a regular expert at various other TV and radio stations. Kate's first book, ‘Working the Cloud’, is the ultimate collection of online tips, tricks and resources for small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs. Her first novel, ‘Elite: Mostly Harmless’, is a sci-fi story based on a remake of the computer game Elite Dangerous.